Diana Jean Baker Collinsworth

Beloved Mother, Grandmother and Friend, Diana Jean Baker Collinsworth, or just “Jean”, died Friday, June 22, 2012, at Three Rivers Hospital.

A viewing ceremony was held on Monday, June 25, at Hull and Hull Funeral Home.

A Celebration of Jean’s Life will be held this Saturday, July 21st from 4 - 9 pm. You may contact her daughter Diana, [emailprotected], for details and directions. Guests are encouraged to bring their favorite story of Jean to share and a food item.

Jean was born in Selma, California on November 04, 1919 to John Logan and his wife, May Estelle Dill. Jean and three siblings, Elizabeth, Alan “Buddy” and Katherine, were raised on a grape ranch next to the Kings River in the Central Valley of California. She attended Fortuna, a one-room school house, graduated from Parlier High School and received her B.A. in History and Education and M.A. in Psychology from Fresno State College, now CSU, Fresno. She was a much loved teacher and counselor at General Grant School in the Reedley, CA for 30 years.

She married Army Air Force Lieutenant William Loren “Bill” Baker, of Fresno, CA in May 9, 1942. Bill, an agricultural chemist, died on May 21, 1976. They had three children: Diana Burke, of Oakland, CA; William Alan “Bud” Baker, of Marysville, WA; and John Raymond Baker, of Grants Pass, OR.

Jean married Earnest “Ernie” Collinsworth, of Fresno, on February 25, 1980. Ernie was a Vice President and Accountant with Ballentine Packing Co. They were married in Reedley, CA. Jean and Ernie moved from California to Grants Pass in 1990.

Jean’s lifetime passions included her family and friends; teaching and counseling people of all ages; gardening; reading books, magazines and newspapers; growing, cooking and eating organic fruits and vegetables and working out at the YMCA. She was a member of the California Teachers Association, the Joy Luck Book Club, the Grants Pass Center
for Spiritual Living and the Democratic Party.

Jean is survived by her husband Ernie; by her three children; by her sister Elizabeth Harris, of Berkeley, CA; by her sister’s children, Margaret Harris Martin of Los Gatos, CA; Katherine Romanoff and Victor Harris, of Oakland, CA; by her grandson, Joshua Burke, and great grandchildren, Finley and Vivian Burke, of Oakland, CA; by her grandsons, William Lee Mahoney and Michael Joseph Baker and grand daughter Erika Baker; and by her stepchildren: Sue Gardner, of Reedley, CA; Dan Collinsworth of Kingsburg, CA and Lynn Williams, of Willits, CA and step-granddaughter Ingrid Askim Ross and step-great
grandson Logan Ross.